NRA VP LaPierre to appear at Senate Judiciary hearing next week

Wayne LaPierre, vice president and CEO of the National Rifle Association, is scheduled to appear as a witness before the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday, Sen. Patrick Leahy announced.

Mr. LaPierre has emerged as arguably the most prominent face of the opposition to President Obama’s push to enact gun controls. Most recently, he slammed Mr. Obama for cautioning against “absolutism” during his inaugural address.

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“Obama wants to turn the idea of absolutism into a dirty word,” Mr. LaPierre said at an awards speech in Reno, Nev., this week. “Just another word for extremism. He wants you, all of you, and Americans throughout all of this country, to accept the idea of principles as he sees fit. It’s a way of redefining words so that common sense is turned upside down and that nobody knows the difference.”

Mr. Leahy, Vermont Democrat and chairman of the committee, has also invited Mark Kelly, the husband of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Nicholas Johnson, a law professor at the Fordham University School of Law, Jim Johnson, chief of police for Baltimore County, Md., and Gayle Trotter, an attorney and senior fellow of the Independent Women’s Forum. The hearing is titled “What Should America Do About Gun Violence?”